Team Member Spotlight: President & Co-Founder, Marty Mingl

Marty Mingl brings the same work ethic and pragmatism he learned growing up on his parents’ small farm to Future Link IT, as President and co-Founder with Carl Roedel. (Between the two of them, the owners bring 50 years’ combined experience with software and hardware installation and customization). It’s all about practical solutions:

“We’re not a consulting firm,” Marty said, definitively. “If something breaks, we fix it. We come in and get the job done.”

The youngest of three, Marty was mechanically inclined from an early age. “I grew up on my parents’ farm,” he said. “A great place. There were always dirt bikes and 4-wheelers to work on. Some we built from boxes of parts.”

“My dad taught me not to be afraid to try.” Marty explained that his parents were his inspiration for career choice—and entrepreneurial spirit.

Marty watched his dad work hard to provide for a family of 5 as a plastics tool maker. “My dad literally worked 50 hours a week his entire career, then came home and took care of the farm.” Marty didn’t know what he wanted to do; he thought maybe to become an auto mechanic, then took a job at a woodworking shop.

“After 10 hours a day in crazy heat thinking I was going to die, I decided to go back to school,” he laughed. Marty pursued a technical education at DeVry for electronics.

Once he’d earned his degree, however, Marty realized those jobs don’t pay very well. A neighbor who worked for MSI Software, a family-owned business in Lombard, recognized Marty’s aptitude and recommended him for a technician role.

After multiple phone interviews, MSI hired him. The only other technician on the team and the owner’s son mentored him in hardware networking, but Marty trained himself further, picking up networking, troubleshooting, and other skills.

As the technician team grew, Marty showed a knack for selling as he worked, seeing opportunities where MSI could serve their clients more. He quickly became the top salesman at the company and was promoted to Sales Manager.

Around that time, Marty and his (then) wife served for 2-3 years as house parents to 12 children at the Glenwood School for Boys, a weekday “boarding school” for at-risk middle school students. “House parents serve as role models for the children,” according to Glenwood’s website. “They give one-on-one attention and meet challenges in constructive ways… [and] strive to develop strong partnerships with [students and] families by offering support, guidance and education.”

“I still don’t know how we did it,” Marty shook his head. After working a full day, “I would come home to 12 boys—then 13, when we had our own,” putting in the extra time he’d seen his father do. “We’d teach them to clean up after themselves and all the rest. It was a good way for my ex-wife to work while raising our son at home, and a great experience for our son, who learned to walk and talk fast,” the little guy doing his best to catch up with the big kids.

“Growing up on the farm, I was kind of isolated.” Working with the Glenwood boys taught Marty “a lot about people. I learned about the inner city, neglect, society, what these kids lived through.” He still stays in touch with some of the graduates. “Every time I go to Vegas I visit with one of my boys.”

As MSI grew, the company purchased software to sell, but “we never sold any of it because no one had time to learn it,” Marty chuckled. Enter: Carl Roedel. “Carl was a software guy, experienced with that particular software. He called me; I hired him to support and help sell the software,” Marty said simply. And a partnership was born.

Marty and Carl both saw the potential of the company and loved IT. There was a point at which they decided that, no matter what, they were starting their own firm. Marty had already grown into a leadership role at the company. Working with the owners, Marty and Carl took over MSI, hiring some of its employees and buying the equipment and customer list—many of whom remain loyal clients.

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